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In their first run this season of the 1600 meter relay, Chase County just missed the gold by less than half a second last week in Ogallala. Juan Venegas gives it his all at the finish against Sidney’s anchor. (Johnson Publications photo)

Will Kuenne ran a personal best time of 4:46.34 to win the 1600 at Ogallala last week, improving his best by about 15 seconds. (Johnson Publications photo)

After 10 years, Longhorns back on top at Ogallala meet

Chase County discus, high jump marks among state leaders

By Jan Schultz
The Imperial Republican
Not since 2007 has the Longhorn boys’ track team been at the top in the Ogallala meet.
That changed last Thursday, when Chase County’s depth carried them back to the team championship in a field of eight strong track teams.
“It’s been awhile,” said Coach Carl Zuege.
“Our throwers and jumpers got us off to a nice lead in the morning, and we continued to pick up points all day long,” he said.
Chase County won the meet by a 14-point margin, with Class B Sidney in second. Host Ogallala finished third.
The Longhorns won five events and placed in 13 overall, led by the field events “where we scored a lot of points,” Zuege said.
Thirty-six points alone came in the shot and discus, where teammates Jack Bauerle, Dakota Wallin, Hunter Bartels and Eli Hinojosa combined for first, third and fifth in both events.
The standout performance of the day, Zuege said, had to be Wallin’s 149’11” in the discus. It not only won the event, but puts him among the state leaders in all classes.
“That’s a personal record and a significant improvement,” Zuege said.
Bartels was third and Bauerle, fifth, in the discus.
In the shot put, the top spot went to Bauerle at 47’ 7.75”. Racking up additional points were Bartels in third and Hinojosa, fifth.
Cody Williams took gold in the high jump for a second week in a row. His 6’8” jump at the March 23 opener is tied with a St. Paul jumper for the second highest in the state this season.
Last week in Ogallala, he jumped 6’1” to win it. Williams was also in the triple and long jumps that morning, so after winning it at 6’1”, the bar went up to 6’9” as he attempted to better his jump from the week before. Zuege said he had one good attempt at 6’9” but wasn’t able to clear it.
He moved on to take second in the triple jump and third in the long.
Will Kuenne turned in a personal best time of 4:46.34 to win the 1600. That’s an improvement of about 15 seconds over his previous best, Zuege said. Kuenne also took third in the 3200.
Rounding out the Chase County firsts was the 3200 meter relay team of Scott Wheeler, Bryson Fisher, Caleb Weiss and Francisco Barrientos. They finished 20 seconds ahead of second place Sidney.
The 1600 meter relay team of Weiss, Wheeler, Juan Venegas and Barrientos just missed the gold by less than half a second. That was the first competition of the season since the 1600 relay was not run the week before.
“That’s a really good start for us,” Zuege said.